A Christmas Tragedy

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June 1933. Independent, young Kitty Underhay has been left in charge of her family’s hotel, The Dolphin, on the tranquil English coast. But when several rooms are broken into and searched, including Kitty’s own, she quickly realizes that something out of the ordinary is afoot at the hotel. Soon, rumors are flying in the cozy town that someone is on the hunt for a stolen ruby. A ruby that Kitty’s mother may well have possessed when she herself went missing during the Great War.

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Lavinia's annual Masked Ball at Mydworth Manor is a highlight of the season, as locals mingle with the great and famous from London. But the lavish party comes to a full stop when one of the guests is found dead down by the lake. It seems it's a clear case of a heart attack. But Harry and Kat suspect that the dead man in a mask was in fact the victim of a clever case of murder. And the killer's work at the party is not yet done... Nathaniel Parker, born in 1962, graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company.

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A centuries-old skeleton is discovered in a lonely Scottish Castle. It wears a crown and hides a curse. Swift, the detective friend of Major Heathcliff Lennox, now lives at Braeburn Castle, and it was he who uncovered the skeleton. As ghosts are heard and treasure-seekers appear, the murders begin. Lennox must go to Braeburn and investigate as Halloween draws near.

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A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. Car trouble and poor weather lead John Bradley to Lark Cottage, the home of Lucy Shaw and her young daughter, Julia. Her husband, serving a life sentence for murder, has escaped from Lanforth Prison, and she implores her unexpected visitor to stay the night. Listeners will love this rare short story from John Bingham and the unexpected twist.

3 out of 5 stars

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A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. As Sir Leonard Huntercombe tells the elaborate story of one of his clients, listeners will love piecing together this strange locked-room mystery set on a sleeper train to Aberdeen.

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Another Nugget from the Golden Age

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Drop Dead, Gorgeous

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Miss Marple meets Oscar Wilde in this new series of cosy mysteries set in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Bunburry. In "Drop Dead, Gorgeous," the fifth Bunburry book, Deb's Beauty Salon becomes the last resting place for merry widow and property magnate Eve Mosby, whose passions include haute couture and a young lover. Plenty of people disliked Mrs Mosby, but enough to kill her? And what really baffles amateur sleuth Alfie McAlister and his friends Liz and Marge is that the body is found in a locked room - how did the murderer get in and out?

5 out of 5 stars

MUCH BETTER!!!

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Publisher's Summary

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories.

A Christmas Eve party at Clevere Hall ends in tragedy when the host is found stabbed to death. Major Ceely certainly wasn’t short of enemies, but who hated him enough to commit the crime?

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Loved this murder tale!

A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY was first published in 1910 as part of the short story collection Miss Molly of Scotland Yard (the audio version of the anthology is poorly done). This short story is superb! I am a fan of author Baroness Emmauska Orczy.

Far too short.. over before I was ready for it

This started out great.. but BAM! It was over. Shame really. I did enjoy what I read.

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Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

A. B. Moriarty

01-06-19

Season of Goodwill does not extend to poor people

Nasty, mean-spirited tale that does not hide its contempt of the poor. I probably should have seen it coming as it is written by a Baroness but this really exemplifies the worst class prejudices of the time. Worse still, there is no intelligence in the plotting: no hidden clues; no deduction; no intricate machinations.

(Spoilers)
The heroine (constantly referred to using a cod-Homeric epithet that drives the listener to madness) merely guesses at the catalyst for the murder and assumes it must be the poor people because they are so dirty and their clothes are cheap. The author even makes one an ‘imbecile’ to drive home the point about the lesser worth of the down-at-heel.

It was a deeply distasteful and depressing listen for the season.
Why on earth was this not left in obscurity?